The present invention relates to a machine and method for layering sheets of food material more particularly to forming sheets of lasagne in layers, inserting a filling between the layers and cutting into portions automatically.
Normally, in the production of lasagne, the pasta is extruded, cut into sheets of a suitable width, blanched, cut and put piece by piece into an ALUTRAY device by hand with a filling of sauce between the pieces. This process has the following disadvantages:
(1) The pasta processing line is unduly long and occupies a great deal of space.
(2) The process is labour intensive and requires at least five people on the line.
(3) There are losses of pasta as a result of a lack of time for the operator to transport all the pieces of pasta to the ALUTRAY device.
(4) There are several moving parts in the machine for transporting and layering the pasta sheets, which are prone to break down or wear out.